INDIA STOCKS-Indian shares struggle as IT stocks drag; Delta Corp plunges

(Adds analyst comment)

By Sethuraman N R

BENGALURU, Sept 25 (Reuters) -

Indian shares on Monday hit a more-than-two-week low as information technology stocks continued to fall, while casino operator Delta Corp plunged 15% after it received a notice from the tax department.

The Nifty 50 was down 0.1% at 19,657 points as of 10:00 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.1% to 65,958 points.

Both the Sensex and Nifty ended last week in their lowest in months as the Fed's hawkish stance indicated interest rates will remain higher for longer.

IT stocks fell 0.5% on fears over a delayed demand recovery in the U.S., its major market due to higher interest rates. Last week, they fell 1.4%.

Markets will remain under pressure due to current uncertainty in global markets amid "renewed concerns" over the likely interest rate hike by key global economies in the near term, said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president research, Mehta Equities.

Shares of Delta Corp slumped after the company said on Friday it received a notice to pay taxes worth 111.4 billion rupees ($1.34 billion).

Surging crude oil prices have also brought inflation worries to investors in the world's third-largest importer, analysts said.

Domestic markets have come under pressure in September with foreign investors offloading over $1 billion worth of shares as of Sept. 21. Foreign inflows into Indian equities were about $15 billion so far this year as of last week.

Bajaj Finance rose 4%, after the non-banking financial giant proposed to raise funds via qualified institutional placement.

Shares of Religare Enterprises fell 2.3% after the Burman family

made

an open offer on Monday for an additional 26% stake in the company at a discounted price. (Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)